EverSense: More than a smart thermostat

First, there was the Nest Learning Thermostat, which brought home environment control to iOS users around the world. More recently, legacy thermostat and controls manufacturer Honeywell jumped into the fray with the Lyric smart thermostat. Now Austin-based Allure Energy is introducing a smart thermostat that also acts as a home hub. The company's EverSense system (US$299) is the first of its type to add features like music streaming, video playback and a weather app to the trusty home thermostat.

The EverSense thermostat comes with an iOS app that provides proximity control of heating and cooling as well as remote control. Like the Nest, it can determine when you're at home or away and adjust the controls to make your life more comfortable. But it also adds features that the competitors don't have, such as wireless speakers that you can stream music to, an app that grabs your Flickr uploads and turns the EverSense display into a digital picture frame, the ability to play back videos, and a built-in weather app showing forecasts and radar images.

The company plans to expand EverSense in the future, adding two more apps to the device -- one for Wi-Fi enabled security cameras and another to control smart plugs. The device itself is larger than a traditional thermostat, and makes use of GPS technology and a trademarked Proximity Control Technology to gradually adjust the temperature at a residence based on where the homeowner is to optimize energy usage.